A CBS Philadelphia (YouTube) news segment featuring Dr. Jennifer (Jenn) Simmons, MD, chief of breast surgery at Einstein Medical Center, about changing practices for delivering breast cancer diagnoses. The segment reports a University of Missouri study surveying nearly 3,000 breast cancer patients (1967–2017) that found telephone notification rose from ~25% before 2007 to about 60% since 2015. Dr. Simmons explains she delivers all biopsy diagnoses by phone to provide immediate results, then schedules longer in-person follow-ups; hospitals are also exploring video calls pending HIPAA considerations.
Questions this video answers
Nearly 3,000 patients.
From 1967 through last year (report context indicates through 2017).
About one out of four (≈25%).
About 60%.
No. She states: 'All of my patients receive that call. I don't have a single patient who I give a diagnosis to in person.'
Chapters
Live from the CBS broadcast center in Philadelphia, this is CBS 3 Eyewitness News at 11.
Well, it's one of the most difficult pieces of news you could ever get learning you have cancer.
Greg Argos is here to explain why doctors are no longer breaking the news in person. But Greg over the phone.
Yeah, Jessica, basically it all boils down to getting the information as quickly as possible. Doctors say it used to take a few days to get results back in. Now breast biopsy tests can return in just 24 hours. And so more and more women are getting that news by phone.
No one wants to hear bad news, especially when it comes to your health. But if there is a medical problem.
Many say I want to hear it face to face. I would prefer to receive it in person.
We social creatures, I want to be.
In person when we talk about it, always in person.
But a new study from the University of Missouri School of Medicine shows when it comes to breast cancer diagnoses, the majority of women receive the news from their doctors over the phone.
Over the phone is too impersonal for me. I think that is very wrong. I think that they should call them in.
The study surveyed nearly 3,000 breast cancer patients from 1967 through last year and found about one out of four were notified by phone prior to 2007. Since 2015, that number has grown to 60%.
It's definitely not the way that it used to be. Things have definitely changed.
Those three words, you have cancer. It's an awful thing for anyone to hear, regardless of whether or not it's breast cancer.
Dr. Jennifer Simmons is the chief of breast surgery at Einstein Medical center in Montgomery County.
All of my patients receive that call. I don't have a single patient who I give a diagnosis to in person.
She says patients prefer this since the information is delivered immediately when she gets back the biopsy results and they're simply waiting for her call.
All about managing expectations and setting expectations from the beginning. This is when I'm going to be calling. Is this a good time for you? Should we set up another time?
And that call, if it includes those three dreaded words, is just the beginning of many face to face meetings.
It's a five minute conversation on the phone that's followed by an hours long conversation a day or two later.
In person.
In person.
Dr. Simmons says many hospitals are looking into the possibility of video calling patients as well, but HIPAA regulations first need to be worked out. The bottom line here is that call is usually expected and patients who are diagnosed with cancer will then receive plenty of office meetings forward. So it's not just, I like what.
The doctor said about setting those expectations. It's when I'm going to call. Everybody's on board. You know, that helps.
Here's when. Here's when you're going to receive that news.
